I agree with your first statement. Just from my own observation in Ontario, I believe that municipalities that have gone down this road have done it better. Not every municipality in Ontario, obviously, has done what the cities of Ottawa or Toronto or Vancouver have done; there is still a patchwork. But those that have engaged in this concept and principle have done a very good job of it.
As to why that is, I don't know. It may be, as you say, that they are closer to the kinds of data people want. It may be that it's easier for them to adopt a principle and philosophy as a collective and put it into action, as compared with other levels of government that are dealing with multiple ministries and such. I'm not sure exactly why it is. Quite often in the United States public policy development happens at the state level rather than the federal level. It may be the same type of thing that's happening here: they are a bit like a laboratory that can try new ideas to see whether they work.
I can speak from the Ontario experience about the kind of data. In addition to the types of things that you've heard about, we have tried to put an emphasis on transparency of expenditures, the general principle being that the public has a right to know how public dollars are being spent.
I've seen a progression. In Ontario we have a Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act; I mentioned in my comments the extent to which posting of expenses is now required; we're making inroads in contracts. In terms of the kinds of formal FOI requests we get, we get a lot based on procurement: who won the competition and how much money they are getting. I think we'll continue to stress that area.
I think public expectations will drive this. I think we're not far from a day when government institutions will have to make their procurement process fully transparent.